The Pen is Mightier than the Billy Club?

As I have discussed cameras as a method to deter crime, I feel compelled to discuss their inherent nature as being a threat.  Constant surveillance, as Big Brother as it may seem, also gives us a sense of protection.  However, this sense of protection also comes with a large threat.  If we commit come crime that ends up being caught on camera, there is always the threat that someone will review that film and use it as evidence against us.

            When we become aware of the cameras, we wonder why we are being watched.  What are we doing that could warrant the need to have them recorded?  And, most importantly, why does there need to be proof?

            Throughout the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago, police saw the press as the enemy.  The press agents were specifically targeted by the police force during the riots.  In the aftermath, the city contended that they were not targeting any groups deliberately and that, in the chaos that the parks were at night, the police could not be expected to correctly identify the victims *ahem* rioters.  However, any reasonable person is able to discern between a press badge waving reporter pointing a camera at you while his friend takes notes and the real enemy—the long haired hippie shouting, “Pig!” and throwing rocks.

            It seems perfectly clear and is widely uncontested throughout the general population that these police officers truly were scheming against the press corps.  It is undisputed because most of us think the same way.  If we are initiating riots and subsequently committing police brutality, we may as well club some more Lincoln Park holdouts in order to be sure our badge numbers aren’t recorded. If the camera was not present, there would have been no threat to the camera holder.

            This is the same logic that drives convenience store robbers to break the CCTV.  They are already committing far worse crimes than vandalizing a piece of security equipment; they might as well protect themselves from being visually identified.